SHORTEST DAY OF YEAR

Press, Issue 29236, 21 June 1960, Page 16

SHORTEST DAY OF YEAR

537 Minutes Of

Light

Those who have to leave for work before 8 a.m. and return home after 5 p.m. will be travelling today while the sun is below the horizon. However, there will be an improvement from today, for June 21 is officially the shortest day of the year. A change will not be noticed immediately. After today, which is 537 minutes, there will be four other days of the same length in minutes with only a few seconds’ variation. On June 21 the sun will rise at 8.02 a.m. and set at 4.59 p.m., a period six hours and a half shorter than that of the longest day on December 22. The title of shortest day goes to June 21 by 2.4 seconds from June 22. It is June 28 when the 537-minute barrier is broken.

To most persons, today is the turning point of the winter, but to the meteorologist the ..middle of winter is July 15. In the next three weeks the mean daily temperature drops until it begins to rise again late in July. The weather office at Harewood expects worse weather after the shortest day, although frosts should decrease in severity. Three of Christchurch’s deepest falls of snow have come after the shortest day. On July 14, 1945. a record fall of nearly Ift was recorded, and on days in July, 1939, and 1918 about 6in of snow were recorded in the eity. A feature of the winter so far has been the lightness of the frosts. Only seven frosts of more than 5 degrees have been recorded.